80th anniversary of foundation of Vital Statistics Office posts

Press release no. 142

Tomorrow, 20 September, the Ministry of the Interior will be organising a festive ceremony in the Paide Cultural Centre to mark the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the posts of the Vital Statistics Office. "The need for the work of the people in the Vital Statistics Office has not diminished over the last 80 years, regardless of the changes that have taken place in society," said Enel Pungas, seminar organiser and director of the ministry's Population Facts Department. "The story of the Estonian people is reflected in the documents they have maintained so carefully over the years."
Regional Affairs Minister Jaan Õunapuu will be opening the seminar.

Population Affairs Minister Paul-Eerik Rummo will be giving a presentation on the nature of civil status in Estonia at present; Kalev Katus, director of the Estonian Demographic Institute, will be talking about the historical background to the founding of the Vital Statistics Office; Karin Kask, director of the Tallinn Vital Statistics Office, will be giving a presentation about the work of its officials throughout the decades; and long-time Vital Statistics Office staff member Silvy Tihti will be talking about her own experiences as an employee of the office.

Also, Ilmo Au, director of the Interior Ministry's Religious Affairs Department, will be giving a presentation covering both church and Vital Statistics Office officials, and Enel Pungas will be introducing the ministry's future plans for vital statistics operations.

The first vital statistics registers were opened after the task of recording births, deaths and marriages was transferred from the church to the state on 1 July 1926. The documents that have been compiled over the last 80 years have been of great assistance to people in matters of obtaining citizenship, proving rights of succession, restitution of property and locating family.

Today the functions of the Vital Statistics Office officials are fulfilled by local government, county government and embassy consular officials and ministers of religion. The tasks of the Population Facts Department of the Ministry of the Interior are to coordinate the documentation of vital statistics in Estonia and to organise for the population register to be kept and the births, deaths and marriages archives to be maintained.

The programme for the seminar is attached.